Yesterday, the singer took to Instagram to announce the birth of her second child with husband Gavin Lim, a daughter whom they chose to name Geordi. "Praise God! ðŸ™Today, we welcomed our beautiful daughter ðŸ˜Š Thanks everyone for including us in your prayers," she wrote as a caption for a photo collage showing the first few moments of their little baby girl. Baby Geordi joins her big brother Giddy, who will turn 2 years old in August. Congratulations, Juris and Gavin!

Nickelodeon's planned underwater theme park in Palawan draws protests

Many environmentalists are alarmed at the recent announcement of the children's television cable network to build a theme park in Palawan, dubbed as "the last frontier" because of its pristine coastlines and forests. The 400-hectare development will be situated 20 feet below sea level to showcase the area's marine life and give guests a chance to "interact with the brand" and its characters such as SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer. Nickelodeon's parent company Viacom International Media Networks and its Philippine partner, Coral World Park, stress they are taking very careful measures to ensure that the biodiversity of the area is kept intact. Palawan is home to two UNESCO World Heritage-listed sites: the Palawan Underground River and the Tubattaha coral reefs. The Palawan Council for Sustainable Development says, however, the project has yet to be approved. (gmanetwork.com)

Duterte approves SSS pension hike; contributions will increasePresident Rodrigo Duterte has approved the P1,000 Social Security System (SSS) pension hike for retired SSS members this month to "fulfill a social contract with the Filipino people, especially the elderly and the poor, to give them their best lives in service." The hike, however, comes with a 1.5 percent contribution rate increase that will be implemented by May 2017, presidential spokesperson Ernesto C. Abella said in a press conference on Tuesday. SSS president and CEO Emmanuel F. Dooc is confident that the agency has "enough funds" to support this month's P1,000 pension hike “at least for the first six months” despite a possible “slight delay” due to “some systems requirement.” (inquirer.net)

PHL ends 2016 with 53 confirmed Zika cases

Among the 53 confirmed patients, 65 percent were female including four pregnant women from Las Piñas, Biñan in Laguna, Cebu, and Quezon City. Department of Health (DOH) secretary Paulyn Jean Rosell-Ubial said the age range was from 7 to 59 years old "with a median age of 32." On the upside, Ubial shared the pregnant female patient from Las Piñas already gave birth to a healthy baby last December. The three pregnant women have been closely monitored by the DOH. "We're still awaiting [childbirth] from the other three pregnant women, but there are no signs of microcephaly or any mental disorder, neurological findings among the three fetuses," Ubial said. (gmanetwork.com)

DOH assures parents that deworming tablets are safe for kidsThe Department of Health (DOH) has made an appeal among parents to stop believing the wrong information that is currently being circulated in social media about deworming tablets. "Let us verify our facts by consulting the nearest health facility regarding deworming," DOH secretary Paulyn Jean Rosell-Ubial said in a press briefing. The misinformation can be traced to an incident in Zamboanga back in 2015, where hundreds of students were hospitalized after a mass deworming program. The students experienced abdominal pain and were rushed to the hospital, but Ubial stressed their symptoms were not because of the deworming tablets. Ubial believed the symptoms the children experienced were psychosomatic. "Because of the news and [how it] spread quickly on social media, it created a lot of panic and fear among all the children who were already given the deworming," Ubial said. (gmanetwork.com)